Doctor Who Unbound - Pointing in the Right Direction
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Shaken from the events of the Pit and worried about the future of his Rocket Group, the last thing Professor Bernhard Quatermass expected was to be shown the future by a stranger with a police box that was bigger on the inside. (Sympathy for the Devil universe)


I own neither Quatermass nor Doctor Who.

This one-shot is for the author Quatermass, whose stories have become two of my favourites. They told me they were interested in the Doctor from the Unbound story 'Sympathy for the Devil' and 'Masters of War', played by David Warner, and crossed over with Quatermass. Well, here it is. This one-shot is set after 'Quatermass in the Pit' and 'Masters of War,' though there won't be any mention of the events from the Doctor's point of view. This story is mostly in Bernhard Quatermass's perspective.

Enjoy.

* * *

Pointing in the Right Direction.

Professor Bernhard Quatermass walked down the corridors of the British Rocket Group laboratory towards his own personal laboratory wearily, his body aching as he tried to shake off the after-effects of that mess with the Martian 'devils' but he knew it would take time before he felt energetic again, but whether or not the British Rocket Group would even have some time, he didn't know.

The future of his beloved Rocket Group which had been brought into effect to allow humanity to shed their innate savagery and embark into space had been worrying Quatermass for some time, going back to that mess when he and his team had sent up that experimental rocket before Victor absorbed the minds of the other two members of the flight and began mutating into a bizarre plant organism before the scale threatened the entire world.

Quatermass wondered how long he and his team had before a more militaristic rather than scientific mindset infected the space programme like the infectious disease Victor had almost infected them with, but he hoped with the recent demise of Colonel Breen, who had been their favourite puppet to take control of the Rocket Group and make things 'practical,' as in turning the Rocket Group into a small organisation which focused on civilian driven research into outer space into building rockets to hurl against whatever enemies they dreamt up. But with Breen dead, there would be time for the authorities to try something new, though Bernhard had no idea what their next game plan would be.

But truthfully he was worried there would be nothing he could do to stop them at all; although he liked to pretend otherwise, Bernhard could understand the military applications behind his work. He just found it disgusting that instead of trying to change and to grow, government and military types were still locked up in the old mindsets and didn't realise space should be a wonder to explore, with millions of mysteries just waiting for them to unlock, and he hadn't resisted in pointing it out during that meeting before the pit interested him enough to make him investigate what was happening there about what he thought about their plans.

'_Operation Damocles', _Quatermass thought to himself in disdain as he remembered those fools talking about it during the meeting, _they still believe in things as nonsensical as 'ultimate weapons' when there's no such thing, and there never will be. A few years ago the ultimate weapon was the nuclear bomb._

But what had upset him the most was the thought of his life's work to see what was beyond Earth's atmosphere and what laid in the vacuum of space, out there in the solar system, would no longer be a scientific wonder, of miracles just waiting for them to discover, to grow from, but would instead be a tool for military purposes.

The very thought of missile bases in orbit, or on the moon or on Mars, made Bernhard feel physically sick, and what made it worse of all was the fact it would be _his _work that was being perverted. All of those years of hard work, sweat and toil, the memories of Victor Caroon and the others who had gone into space to be the first people ever to unlock the mysteries of space, all of them washed away by uncaring military idiots who saw space itself as a launch site to rain a hail of ballistic missiles down on the Earth. Didn't those idiots remember Hiroshima, the aftermath of the atrocity which had seen millions die?

Bernhard did, and he was determined to stop it. However, he doubted it would be simple; a lot of his credibility had been lost when he had taken that recording of Barbara's vision to the authorities since they believed the alien device in the bottom of that pit had been nothing more than a Nazi weapon, blissfully and conveniently forgetting the skeletal remains in the pit were a lot older compared to the measly few years since the end of the last war, but that was the problem with the bureaucratic and militaristic mind; they were so limited that they couldn't see there was more to the universe than unexploded bombs, Nazi propaganda weapons, and things like that.

However, Bernhard couldn't say he blamed them; a lot of it was beyond fantastic. It was fascinating enough that there had once been a form of life on Mars and that they had frequently visited Earth during their long history centuries before humans had evolved to their current level, but that they had manipulated humans to possess powers such as telepathy and telekinesis, and that those abilities were sparked whenever someone with those same genes were near Hobb's End, making objects move and float, and those weird visions they had which weren't ghosts or poltergeists at all.

And instead of thinking, just _thinking _that perhaps there was something more out there, in worlds people relegated to the supernatural, everyone had just denied it even when he had the proof.

_Oh, well, _he thought philosophically even though the current thought in his mind depressed him, _I will keep trying to prove there's more in space, and that the Rocket Group is worth it. _

Yet… the thought of continuing to fight the same old battle, of making the government and the military see there was life beyond their cosy world, life beyond their comprehension, made Bernhard want to just drop to the ground in exhaustion. Nothing had really worked before, and knowing the government who had not only buried the proof he'd given them over the years but classified it until it couldn't be touched without the type of gloves nuclear physicists used to move radioactive materials around, but would probably keep watch on him to make sure he didn't share too much.

They needn't worry, Bernhard knew if he tried to talk he wouldn't get away with it.

As he walked towards his laboratory, happy no-one seemed to be about, trying to push the terrible memories of that horrible ethnic cleansing he himself had been a part of when the aliens' influence had practically taken over his mind and had driven him insane, Bernhard couldn't help but think about the deaths that caused during that media media event and he pushed the guilt aside of what he had done during that time, how he had tried to go on a killing spree, but he was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a bizarre wheezing, groaning sound coming from his laboratory.

Worried, Bernhard ran towards his laboratory, pushing the weariness from his limbs as he went. He banged his way into his laboratory, and he was immediately surprised when he saw an unfamiliar man standing in his laboratory standing over one of the desks but was now looking around.

"Who the devil are you?" Quatermass demanded, his nerves already frayed after all the stress he'd been put through during the events at the pit before he'd learnt the aliens' had manipulated humanity to commit ethnic cleansing in a manner the Nazis themselves would have been hard pressed to match.

The man was fairly tall with grey hair swept back with an aged face, and appeared to be twice Bernhard's own age, wearing a dark suit with a tie.

"Are you Professor Bernhard Quatermass?" the man asked.

"Yes, who the devil are you?" Bernhard asked, wondering by now if he was ever going to get a straight answer.

Some of his impatience must have shown because the man sighed. "I knew I should have come later, especially after that business in the pit," he seemed to say to himself before he looked earnestly up at Bernhard, "Look, I'm sorry about dropping in on you like this, professor, but I wanted to meet you."

"Couldn't you have just telephoned ahead and arranged an appointment?"

"Sorry, I don't have a phone, and besides my visit is purely spur of the moment," the man said before he held out his hand, "I'm the Doctor, by the way."

Bernhard stiffened. "A doctor? You mean you were sent by Colonel Breen to see if I was mad?" he demanded again; he had seen the scornful way everyone in that meeting had treated him when he'd revealed the alien connection to Hobb's lane, and suddenly there was this man in his laboratory, uninvited.

"What?" the man seemed totally surprised before he realised what it was Bernhard was accusing him of being. "No, I am not a psychiatrist. I'm like you, a proper scientist."

"A proper scientist?" Bernhard echoed, though he idly wondered if he was ever going to speak without asking another question to this man.

"Yes," the man returned, looking as exasperated as Bernhard himself felt with this entire conversation since it wasn't going the way he wanted it too, though Bernhard didn't really care since it was too late for him to really think. "A scientist who's interested in the unknown rather than worrying what's going on in other people's mind; it might be interesting to them but I prefer something a bit more interesting like rockets."

Bernhard stared back at him sceptically, still not sure about the man's motives. He'd had just about enough of second-guessing people who came to his laboratory or jumped on him with meetings about an aggressive agenda where they saw his work as a tool for their own devices.

The man sighed again. "How to make him see I'm not a problem?" he whispered to himself before he snapped his fingers. "Come with me, Professor."

The man walked over to a corner, and for the first time Bernhard Quatermass took in a surprising sight; the tall blue box of a police telephone box. He had seen them on the streets, but he had no idea what one was doing in his laboratory.

Bernhard remained rooted to the spot, watching in disbelief as the man hurried over to the police box, wondering what it was doing there, but the lack of explanation, the presence of the mysterious man who called himself 'the Doctor,' coupled with the stress of the night along with the way his mind had been churned over and over again by the never ending questions he'd found himself pursuing concerning the history of his civilisation, combined with the stress of knowing that his Rocket Group would be replaced by militaristic numbskulls who believed they were bringing world peace about, but they also brought armageddon.

He started feeling angry. "Who are you?" he demanded angrily. "Why is there a police box in my laboratory?"

"Please, professor-," the man tried.

"NO! Tell me now!" The anger was becoming oppressive.

"All right," the man replied, sighing and looking back at Quatermass with irritation. "All right, I'll show you," he said with a trace of snark in his tone, and with that he threw open the doors of the police box, "there, happy now?" the man went on, ignoring the open-mouthed expression on Bernhard Quatermass' face as the light from the inside of the box fell upon his face.

Bernhard Quatermass had seen many strange things during his time as a scientist - when he had begun the rocket group, he had never expected to see one of his oldest friends and colleague become the host of parasitic plant organism, he had never imagined dealing with an alien invasion where the highest levels of government would be touched, and he had never expected to discover that something many people had believed to be spirits and poltergeists were actually the cause of alien interference in the human gene pool by a race of aliens who believed in ethnic cleansing on a level the Nazis would themselves be seen as amateurs in comparison.

But he had never imagined seeing what looked like a large space trapped inside a small one.

At first, his mind refused to believe it, he wondered for a moment if he was suddenly and finally losing his mind; it was late, he had been through all kinds after that disaster in Hobb's Lane where his mind had been warped by the aliens' influence. But after blinking a few times and pinching himself to make sure this was not a dream, Bernhard Quatermass had to accept the fact the box was, in fact, bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

"I'm sorry, Professor," the man said, snapping Quatermass out of his shock and made the rocket engineer turn to face him, "I should have come to visit later, but I wanted to give you a priceless gift on a night where you had been put through all kinds of hell."

Bernhard glared at the man, wondering if that was supposed to be his idea of a joke. "If that was meant to be funny, you are going to need to do better after the night I've just had," he retorted.

"Oh, wonderful; you're a fun one," the man said before he became impatient, and he grabbed Bernhard by the arm and pulled with incredible strength towards the interior of the strange police box. "Look, it's quite safe. Trust - actually, on second thought you don't know me, so I can't say trust me, but still give me a chance to prove to you I cam trustworthy. Come on, welcome to the TARDIS."

"The what?"

"The TARDIS," the man, the 'Doctor', repeated, " T-A-R-D-I-S; it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's my ship, and it's my home."

"Your… ship?" Bernhard stopped struggling and studied the Doctor with sudden interest, and more than a little worry as he was pulled into the police box and they both entered.

The inside of the police box which was, in fact, a spaceship was white predominantly in colour, with roundelled walls which provided more space until it was easily larger than Quatermass's whole laboratory. Dominating the room was a console that reminded the scientist of a mushroom, covered in a number of controls and displays which looked not too-dissimilar to the technology Quatermass was used too, but there were some things that were beyond his comprehension. Around the room were a number of antiques - there were a few old fashioned chairs, a grand ormolu clock, and a seachest, which all looked incongruous in this environment.

Bernhard looked around the room in surprise, struggling to take it all in and he was still not convinced he wasn't seeing things. "How-how is this possible?" he whispered at last.

"It's dimensional engineering," the Doctor replied.

"Dimensional…?" Quatermass repeated, looking over at the Doctor in shock as he took in the implications of what the man whom he was almost sure was an alien, though he couldn't be sure; given how many scientists there were on Earth right now, it was possible if he was simply a smart scientist who had discovered something nobody else had yet, though he couldn't be sure. "You can't engineer dimensions."

"Maybe you and other humans can't, but that's the fun of the universe; there's always bound to be someone who knows something more, but that's no skin off of my nose."

Bernhard chuckled, still unsure if this man could be trusted or not, but he couldn't admit there was something amusing about him. Maybe it because they had similar ideas of humour…

"If the inside is bigger than on the outside," he went on, pushing his thoughts of the whether or not the Doctor was trustworthy after the last week where he'd been exposed to alien influence, "then… you can't be human?" he said, looking at the Doctor as his mind churned out the most logical answer.

The Doctor shrugged. "Yes, obviously."

Bernhard was in two minds about what he could do. On the one hand, this was the first alien he'd really had an opportunity to speak to without being threatened, but on the other hand, he was tempted, after seeing the damage caused, to just leave and find some solution, but his feet were rooted in place.

"Who are you?" he asked, leaning forward curiously. "Where are you from? Why are you here?"

The Doctor smiled. "In strict order or answering; I told you, I'm the Doctor. I'm from a planet known as Gallifrey, the home of an advanced race of beings known as the Time Lords, of which I am one, in case you didn't realise it. As for why I'm here… I'm a traveller, but I came to visit you because I've long since admired your work, Professor Bernhard Quatermass."

Bernhard was not sure about that. "Why?"

"You are one of many people on Earth during its history who have strived to make something more of the world even though you're pressured to do what others want," the Doctor said, "I rarely do this. I don't travel often to meet famous people in history who have a great role in shaping the future of the human race. Let me show you something."

Quatermass barely saw the Doctor move. He watched as the Doctor's hands swept over the console and the doors closed, and there was a sound of power rising before that bizarre wheezing, groaning sound filled the room. "What are you doing?" Quatermass asked, worried. He was starting to feel scared that he had made a mistake in letting the Doctor take him in this far.

"What am I doing? I'm showing you your legacy, and something you will find interesting."

Quatermass didn't have time to ask the Doctor what he meant by that, because there was that strange wheezing, groaning sound again.

The Doctor looked up again, and he smiled genially at the rocket engineer. "We're there," he said simply.

"Where? How could we be somewhere, we didn't move?" Quatermass asked, rattling off new questions.

"The TARDIS - oh, you won't believe me right now, not right now; you'll find out," the Doctor began to explain, but he cut himself off in mid-sentence when he realised that he could make a good explanation but that his guest would never understand or believe it. "Anyway, let's have a look on the scanner - actually on second thought the scanner is too small."

The Doctor made a few adjustments on the console before he opened the main doors. "Let me show you something, but be careful."

Bernhard followed the Doctor towards the door, convinced partly they would still be in the laboratory, and that this would be a terrible joke. But when he reached the doors Bernhard's eyes widened in shock. They were not in the laboratory. Now they were in _**orbit above Earth!**_ At first, he refused to believe they had suddenly made the trip all the way through the atmosphere into orbit, but as he looked around and he lightly reached out to see if it was an illusion, his fingers brushed against something that made the hairs on the back of his hand rise up to attention.

"How-How is this possible?" Bernhard whispered, his mind struggling to make sense of what he was seeing.

The Doctor moved his hand up and touched some kind of barrier. Bernhard jumped when he saw what looked like the ripples of a pond appear and spread out before they dissipated. "The Air-shell is protecting us, its' a forcefield," he explained.

A forcefield? "I've never seen this type of technology," Bernhard whispered in awe as he tried to imagine how it worked. Clearly some kind of energy field, something electromagnetic perhaps? _Actually, _he thought to himself as his mind caught up with the practicalities of such a technology for space travel, _a rocket generating an electromagnetic field could protect it from solar flares, or meteorites…_

"That's because your people haven't yet developed the technology or the underlying science behind it," the Doctor pointed down at the glowing blue globe beneath them, moving his finger over different spots while Bernhard assimilated what the other man-the alien said, "Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, the Pacific Ocean," the Doctor said, and he glanced at Bernhard with a smile that put the rocket engineer of a smug schoolboy. "But that's not why I brought you here. Look…. there," the Doctor pointed at a spot not far away, but Bernhard had to squint his half-exhausted eyes towards the spot the Doctor indicated, and he gasped when he saw a familiar rocket shape.

Bernhard's mind struggled to accept what he was seeing, but he was a scientist who was trained in logic and reasoning. He recognised what it was he was seeing, but his mind refused to believe it. "Is… is that?" he asked, his eyes taking in the familiar, albeit distant sight in front of him.

"That is the experimental rocket ship you constructed and launched, the same rocket where Victor Carroon was infected with that alien intelligence," the Doctor said, confirming what Bernhard was seeing. But his mind was in denial because it happened such a long time ago, and then his mind recalled what the Doctor had said about his people.

"Wait, you called yourself and your people 'Time Lords,' does that mean-?" Bernhard whispered, his mind awash with shock and delight at the idea, although he had a hard time accepting it.

"Does it mean I travel in time? Yes. It is. My people evolved many centuries before life even evolved on your own world, and we solved the mysteries of space and time. Like your people, we experimented with rockets, and eventually we began exploring space before we became more advanced, and soon we developed time travel by creating the Time Vortex."

"The…Time Vortex?" Bernhard repeated, his mind still trying to take everything in, on top of knowing that he was now a time traveller.

"It's…. a space/time anomaly, which is the best way to describe it, creating an artificial dimension that connects space and time together, and allows a TARDIS, like this one to travel to any point in the universe," the Doctor replied, "it's a complicated science which humans at the moment can't properly understand yet. Wait, look!" he pointed at the rocket ship, "It's happening."

Bridling at the thought of being treated like a student who hadn't yet had a lesson in advanced physics, Bernhard bit his tongue and looked, and his tired eyes widened again when they saw the green mist surrounding the rocket ship. "Is that-?" he asked, getting a good idea what it was but he hoped he was wrong although he knew it wasn't.

"The plant organism that threatened Earth, yes," the Doctor's voice was grim. "Watch carefully."

Bernhard watched as the green cloud surrounded the rocket he and his staff of engineers and scientists had worked on for so long, hoping to use the launch and the orbit as a template for later space missions before they'd found themselves trapped in the hell of an alien attack. He watched as the cloud _entered _the rocket without damaging the hull. "How did it do that?"

"The cloud can bypass ordinary matter by altering it and changing it into energy briefly," the Doctor explained. "The plant organism is known as the Triffeib, it lands on planets and infects the environment like a virus, rewriting the DNA of everything it finds and multiplies from there. Once they've colonised the planet, they spread their spores much like ordinary flowers. They use a kind of natural rocket to get out of the atmosphere, and then they are propelled through space using the solar winds."

"That would take thousands of years," Bernhard pointed out.

"Millions," the Doctor nodded in agreement even after he added the possible correction. "The organism doesn't measure time at all. It's just an instinctive creature. It isn't bothered about the problems of interstellar travel. You were lucky on that occasion, most races haven't been in the past."

Bernhard instantly tried to picture those aliens becoming extinct as they were overrun; granted, he only had a vague idea of what would have happened thanks to the experiences the British Rocket Group had faced in that time, but it had scared him ever since.

"Why did you show me this?" he asked.

"I brought you here because you needed to see that despite everything you should never give up," the Doctor replied, "but I want to show you something else, something spectacular."

Bernhard turned to face the Time Lord curiously. "Are you going to show me those aliens who came from Mars?" he asked.

"Oh, they're not the only beings who came from Mars," the Doctor replied, "and no. I wasn't planning on showing them to you. I wanted to show you something important."

"What?" Bernhard asked, his mind eager to see more about those strange insect-like beings who'd meddled in humanity's development, but he could tell the Doctor was not going to budge even though he personally had a dozen questions about those aliens, like how they had travelled to and from Earth and Mars so he could come up with some kind of experimental rocket that derived the techniques.

The Doctor smiled. "The future of humanity's journey into deep space," the Doctor replied, and he ushered the scientist back into the control room of the TARDIS.

The trip was short again, but the TARDIS eventually arrived in orbit of Earth again, but in a different location near a floating mass of spheres, hoops and cylinders forming a kind of basket-like frame, like some kind of bizarre scaffolding around a large rocket-like ship.

Once more standing in the doorway of the TARDIS, Bernhard pointed at it, "Is that a space station?" he asked, feeling slightly foolish, but he needed to ask.

"It's a space construction facility. The ship enclosed inside the structure is far too large to be constructed on Earth; by this time humanity have realised the most efficient way of launching spaceships of considerable size is to construct them in orbit, and they fit in smaller ships to act as shuttlecraft to survey planets rather than land the whole thing.

"Humans," the Doctor said after moment's silence, both looking enthused and yet exasperated at the same time, "you'll go anywhere. That ship that you see if the first lightspeed ship. This is the last few years of the 21st century, and your people are about to take their first steps into a larger world. This is the launch day, and soon it will be the first human-built ship to travel to Proxima Centauri."

Bernhard watched enthused as he took everything in; space stations, and he could see dots of silver orbiting Earth - smaller space stations? he asked himself - and the massive space station in orbit with the light speed ship inside. It's long, rocket-like shape almost brought tears to his eyes because it was using a design he himself had pioneered for so long.

While he was looking at the spectacle, the rocket engineer did not notice the Doctor looking anxiously at the sight as well. Ever since he and Alistair had encountered that would-be time meddler, Krasko in Montgomery when he had tried to displace Rosa Parks in time and he'd acquired the Vortex Manipulator after ripping it off of the psychotic killer's arm and damaged it lightly though if Krasko were an experienced temporal engineer he would have seen the damage was not very serious.

The Doctor had adapted the manipulator to replace the TARDIS's faulty navigational circuit and help direct his travels, especially after that mess with the War Lords which had forced him to contact the Time Lords, resulting in an exile which never happened. The Doctor had no intention of being caught out again like that, and although most of the TARDIS's travels were still random in order to shake his people off of the scent, it was a change certainly to be able to control his TARDIS.

But he hoped he had got it right today… The last thing he wanted was to be embarrassed.

Fortunately, the light speed ship slowly but surely left the dock, and as it left the dock it gained more speed and soon Bernhard could see the shape of the ship. He recognised it as a modified and more advanced design he himself had been working on. The ship in front of him was larger, more streamlined, and it had a few additions, but it was definitely derived from an old design he'd had.

The Doctor noticed his attention. "You're an icon of rocket technology, Professor Quatermass," the Time Lord said, "your work may seem rudimentary to some, but in the future, it will shape the way humans travel in space, and it will continue to do so for generations to come. That light speed ship was designed with you in mind."

Bernhard barely heard the Time Lord because he was too busy watching the sight of the ship that he'd had a hand in designing. Tears sprang to his eyes as the engine flared blue, and the ship jumped forwards before it vanished in a flash of light. Gone, into deep space.

* * *

When Bernhard woke with the first rays of daylight streaming in through his laboratory windows, he looked around in confusion as he expected to see the Doctor and the TARDIS. He got up, wincing as he moved his aching muscles, and he realised he'd been asleep in the chair, and he looked down and saw he was dressed in the clothes he'd worn the day before.

And then Bernhard came to a horrible realisation.

_It was all a dream, _he thought to himself morosely as he looked around the laboratory, suddenly yearning for his own bed but he knew he'd never be able to sleep. There was so much work for him to do.

As he got up with plans to get a shower and a change of clothes, something fell onto the floor. Bernhard looked down and saw an envelope which looked very thick with his name on it. Curiously, Bernhard picked it up, ignoring the pain in his joints, and he opened it up. Inside was a sheaf of papers and a smaller envelope. His puzzlement growing, Bernhard took out the smaller envelope and opened it up.

Inside was a letter and he unfolded it and began to read.

"It's from the Doctor," he said in realisation before he began to read, "'Dear Bernhard if I can call you that; I'm sorry I had to leave you, but after all you saw, you fell asleep when we got back to your lab. I wish I could have said goodbye properly, but that's the great thing about a time machine; I can pop in whenever I like,"' Bernhard shook his head and grinned before he carried on, "'I couldn't leave without leaving you a present. If you look inside you'll find a few things that should help you steer your work into a better direction. Don't worry about the military, or the government - I've already taken care of everything. Goodbye, and good luck, The Doctor.'"

Puzzled, Bernhard tipped up the original envelope and the papers inside came spilling out. Bernhard picked one of them up and studied it, and his eyes widened as he saw it was covered with formulas.

It took Bernhard a moment before his scientific comprehension caught on and he realised that in his hands were the formulas needed to get humans into space without needing to use chemical based rockets. The formula would need time to be studied, but if it was true then the Doctor had given them the key ingredients needed to use the planet's electromagnetic field to repel a spaceship to get it into orbit.

There were a few other formulas and bits of technical writing that Bernhard could see, but he was focused on the first sheet he'd picked up. With this, the rocket programme might be able to get ships and explorers into space without needing to waste so much energy worrying about fuel consumption - the thought saddened him somewhat, but the idea of a more efficient method of launching into space overrode his sadness.

Besides, who said that chemical rockets still couldn't be used?

But another question entered his mind, why did the Doctor give it to him?

In the end, Bernhard decided to wait until the Doctor came back if he came back, and then he would ask him about why he had handed over so much scientific knowledge about space travel.

* * *

It wasn't until the next launch months later when the Rocket Group were busy experimenting with the new anti-magnetic drive which seemed to be the best name to call it while the government were still, mercifully, squabbling over the military applications of their work - with Breen dead, the whole idea of the so-called 'Operation Damocles' had been called into question, but Quatermass was not fooled; he knew the military applications of ballistic missiles all too well, much to his disgust, so he knew the idea would never be too far away.

The government would never give up and he knew it, but for right now they didn't seem ready to implement their plans - with their expert in Breen gone, it would take them a while before they found someone with the knowledge and mindset Breen had possessed.

That would take time. Quatermass wasn't bothered about that since the less interference he suffered from the military, the better things would be for him. In any case, he was more interested in developing the technology the Doctor had given to him.

But in the end, just as the rocket scientist was beginning to wonder what the Doctor had meant in the letter when he had said in passing; suddenly, the government decided it would be easier, and simpler if they formed a second rocket group, whose research was geared towards a more militaristic mindset.

Bernhard had been taken by surprise when he found out, and for a while, he had wondered how the Doctor had managed it, convinced he'd done something to make them do it. But however he'd done it, Bernhard would be forever grateful. As a bonus the government had granted both groups equal funding - Bernhard's group would focus on research, and some of it would be taken by the military. It wasn't a nice compromise, but Bernhard suspected it was a good compromise so he and his team could be left alone.

But it wasn't until the first test rocket with the anti-magnetic drive was launched for the first time with a reusable rocket that was the most advanced spaceship launched by the Rocket Group that Professor Bernhard Quatermass had the feeling the Doctor had given it to them because he wanted to shape history. For months he and his team had been developing the designs for the drive using the formulae as a template, while developing the forcefield technology from the same equations that would protect the astronauts from anything dangerous in space - the precaution was a sound one, after that mess with Carroon - and he had been too distracted with the work and with monitoring the government to see the warning signs the plan to militarise his rockets to really worry himself about the Doctor.

But now the launch was going through, the old questions had returned in force.

But he couldn't be sure, after all, if you're an alien who can travel through time, what did you think of?

* * *

Author's note - For the plant organism from The Quatermass Experiment, I decided to name the creature the 'Triffeibs' - after, well the Triffids, obviously, but I added the last name of a Babylon 5 alien known as the Streibs because I thought it was cool.


End file.
